Name/Title
Gray Letters 1880 02 16Entry/Object ID
2024.10.1.216Description
This is a letter from Muhlenberg Breck, son of Rev. James Breck who established St. Mary's and St. Augustine's schools in Benicia. The letter concerns Mr. Gray's duties as Executor of the will for James Breck (1819 - 03/30/1876). Mr. Gray was co-executor with Mr. James Breck's second wife Sarah Stiles Breck (1819 - 1877) until her death in 1877 when he became the sole executor. The estate was a very large ($50,000+) estate and also very complicated as it was intertwined with the schools Mr. Breck had started in Benicia. The letter says that the estate is not finalized as of 02/16/1880, 4 years after James Breck's death.
The will left almost everything to his wife and two sons, William A Muhlenberg (1856 - 1920) and Charles Renuice Breck (1858 - 1924). (There were some small bequests to a niece of his first wife and to the schools.) Because of the amounts of money involved and the complexity of the assets managed by Mr. Gray during the extended settlement, the sons hired an attorney to represent their interests. The attorney disagreed with how some of the estate funds were invested and challenged Mr. Grays associated fees. At one point his fees were reduced from $2,156 to $1,489 due to a stock investment in Consolidated Virginia and a note and mortgage on property in San Francisco.
I think the letter is talking about money owed to the sons by Samuel Gray due to these fees and how and under what terms he needs to pay them back.
There is also mention of some missionaries changing their plans and not going through Benicia. Background about this can be found in another Gray letter number 2024.10.1.142 dated 01/21/1880.Collection
Benicia Historical Museum Collection
